I mean he basically struggled to play consistently after the Juventus CL games and didn’t contribute anything really to the 18/19 season.

Selling him was honouring an agreement to the player. The issue was poor succession planning; relying on a heavily injury prone 31 year old would be bad management.

Selling Walker and not replacing him was the start, then it all went t#ts up from there, lack of improvement in the squad, bad transfer policy, no transfer policy, just poor management of the squad

I get that I really do. But when people recall us at our best, it was when Mousa was at his best. We never recognised just how important he was to the team. If we did we would’ve signed a N’Dombele type signing 18 months earlier.

Dembele really was a fantastic player, just a shame for you guys he wasn't able to consistently play 90 minutes.

His strength on the ball was absolutely unreal. He epitomised all your strengths when you had the complete team under Poch. His demise in Poch's final years was synonymous with the club's regression as a whole.

I really do not think you can put such a significant decline on the lack of one player. You have to remember as well that in our 18/19 season, before we went in to free fall about Feb/March time, our form had been superb. Dembele only played in 10 league matches that season and was injured in early November.

Despite his loss from the squad we P13 W10 L3 in the next games before he was sold.

I do not disagree he was a class act and a unique sort fo player who fitted perfectly into our system but firstly he always missed 8-10 league games a season through injury, and secondly its not as simple as having a ready made replacement lined up as his qualities were so individual - To me NDombele shares many of the same attributes but with more of an eye for goal but a sucky attitude

comment by TobyJanKaneobi (U15068)
posted 4 minutes ago
I get that I really do. But when people recall us at our best, it was when Mousa was at his best. We never recognised just how important he was to the team. If we did we would’ve signed a N’Dombele type signing 18 months earlier.
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I’m not trying to be purposely difficult but I think a lot of people realised how important he was to the team - and also Poch was very vocal continually about his importance and how messy the squad upheaval was going to be. Through a lot of reasons this was never delivered.

It’s a shame, and would have been great to have him overlap with a competent midfielder. One thing is for certain is that we would have been much better in the CL final with Dembele than Sissoko.

A supremely world class player for his position when he was on form. So many displays where he’s completely dominated the midfield with ease. Juventus away comes to mind. Of course his departure played a part in our downfall, look at the players we had to take his place, they aren’t even within 2 levels of him.

Ndombele is weirdly very alike and very unalike to Dembele at the same time.

Both are outstanding on the ball and great at progressing the play.
Mousa was great at dictating tempo and controlling from the midfield; but actually really disappointing in the final third.
Tanguy so far has been fantastic in the final third and at playing the killer pass; but has really struggled to control any game.

Yeah the main difference in Dembele and N’Dombele for me are the mental attributes. If someone kicked Mousa or tried to ruff him up. It antagonised him to only play better. Whereas with N’Dombele he seems to give up easily.

Whilst Dembele was a really good player for Spurs, he is just one of the reasons Spurs have not been so good.

Walker leaving
Verts and Toby getting older
Rose past his best
Eriksen leaving
Kane get injured a fair bit.

Add that lot to Dembele leaving, and you seriously are not going to get the same level of performances. It happens to all teams at sometime or the other,rebuilding. Notice that United are not so good, since the days of Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand, Beckham etc.

I get that it’s a number of differing reasons contributing to our decline Sandy, but United under Fergie still won trophies. Without Beckham, Scholes, Ferdinand etc.

Whilst even at times Fergie came under pressure for struggling at initially replacing a big player ie Schmeichel but they inevitable found a suitable replacement. These changes were all done incrementally throughout the squad over time.

I just feel personally that Dembélé leaving was the biggest issue. Or rather the fact we allowed him to fade or have continual injuries without a plan at replacing. He was that important to us when we were at our best.

I still think it was a stupid decision to sell him in January rather than let him go for free in the summer.

He was just getting back to fitness and given how weak our midfield was would no doubt have helped. I would have felt a lot more comfortable with him in that champions league final for example.

We only got top 4 in the end due to our rivals ineptitude. No doubt Dembele would have been very useful in the second half of last season.

From what I read it due to an agreement he had with Levy & Poch to let him go out to get a final bit paycheck but so the club could recoup some money on him as well.

Unreplacable as a player .

I suppose not many people gave us much chance of reaching the CL final. Should've kept him in cotton wool and played him in the final, could've made a difference.

No doubt, Mousa wouldn’t have been as timid as what the rest served up. Dodgy leg or not.

He always bossed LFC when we played them....he is the perfect sort of player to counter the press as he would retain possession in the tightest/most pressurised situations and find space with his passing, or break the defensive line.

Our current CM lacks either one or the other. Some are strong but useless in possession. Others use the ball well but are weak. Mousa did both very well, although sometimes his final ball could have been better.

It is no coincidence that our team started to decline the moment Dembele left, he had a unique skill set and we dominated just about every midfield with him and a fully fit Wanyama / Dier.

Winning the midfield battle is key, when we had Dembele our defence came under far less pressure, these days the opposition play through us like a hot knife through butter, and our defence is exposed much more.

Failure to bring in an adequate replacement has been a major factor in our recent decline.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

comment by GTWI4T- some people deserve to get trolled (U6008)
posted 1 hour, 4 minutes ago
comment by sandy (U20567)
posted 4 hours, 26 minutes ago
Whilst Dembele was a really good player for Spurs, he is just one of the reasons Spurs have not been so good.

Walker leaving
Verts and Toby getting older
Rose past his best
Eriksen leaving
Kane get injured a fair bit.

Add that lot to Dembele leaving, and you seriously are not going to get the same level of performances. It happens to all teams at sometime or the other,rebuilding. Notice that United are not so good, since the days of Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand, Beckham etc.
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Poor example sandy. United and Ferguson were masters of rebuilding their squad. Their issue now is that Ferguson has gone.
Spurs simply haven't replaced their players. They struck gold by bringing in a number of quality players at a good age, for good fees and developed them. That strategy is amazing but there is a reason why not many clubs can do it.
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They are nowhere as good though as when they had all those players at their peak. Quite a few years now since their last title, and like Liverpool five years could become 10 years then 20, then 30 before another title.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

"Whilst Dembele was a really good player for Spurs, he is just one of the reasons Spurs have not been so good.

Walker leaving
Verts and Toby getting older
Rose past his best
Eriksen leaving
Kane get injured a fair bit."

Sandy is right about all of this. And I would add............
the squad is older now and Levy just has not replenished the roster as it should have been. Mauricio Pochettino had to suffer through that "buy nothing" season.
And then we fans have to put up with el cheapo purchases like the wrong Fernandes, Aurier, Bergwijn.
I think losing Sissoko to injury did us no good either.

And then there are players who are not going to make the grade, like Winks and Foyth.

So, if you look over the current roster which has aged you will probably come to the conclusion that Levy needs to bring in about 10 really good players.
And that will mean selling Kane.

Fair comment Ted. The squad obviously needs a refresh.

That said, I think we can also look at Poch and say that the 'buy nothing' season is partly down to him refusing players that were lined up by the club. Were they exactly the ones he wanted? Maybe not. But maybe a bit of pragmatism on his part would've saved his job. Heck, it might've won us a trophy.

i heavily criticized Levy last January for the ludicrous decision to sell him without replacing him. Fitness wise he was a problem, but he was worth having just for those big games, as he was the only midfielder we had capable of dominating a midfield against top opposition.

the decision to not replace him was an absolute joke when guys like Tielemans were on the market.

Poch should have never allowed it to happen, but it was a poor poor decision by Levy, imo. I reckon a fit Dembele in the CL final and we are far more competitive in that game than the absolute disgrace of a non performance that we saw. Biggest game in the club's history and not one caaant showed up.

cost me 2k to get to madrid and get accommodation and went round the houses on 3 different flights just to make it, and we would have been no worse off with me on the pitch. was absolutely furious with that performance.